Comments on: Tesla Death Watch 5: Oops! Eberhard’s Car Crashed. Or Not.

By: David Dennis

David Dennis — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 01:29:02 +0000

Alex, the Tesla is looking like an exceptional car with a great design and amazingly low operating costs …

… that the company can’t make to save its life.

After about four months of official “production”, Tesla still hasn’t made more than 3-4 completed cars, and they’ve made a lot of bizarre and fishy statements on the way that’s made people seriously distrust the company.

I think a lot of people believe that once founder Martin Eberhard was pushed out of the company, it lost its soul and has been drifting badly ever since.

I thought Martin was a lot like Jim Jannard of the RED Digital Cinema company, who has admitted several times in posts on his forums that “we really don’t know what we’re doing” while at the same time delivering, in spades. In other words, someone you could trust to tell you what was really going on, and to fix the problems as they came up.

Martin got kicked out by the money guys, and to say that people have less faith in the company’s subsequent management is being kind.

Tesla Motors is a wonderful idea and I hope the management team finds a way to right the ship and get production seriously going. The fact that they couldn’t get Martin’s car, which he bought and paid for, on the road literally months after alleged production unit 1 was on the road is simply appalling.

By: ihatetrees

ihatetrees — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:58:51 +0000

I just watched the video. For cryin’ out loud, they don’t even DRIVE the car! And what’s with the crap about Musk’s re-usable rockets!!

Claman’s pimpfest isn’t as appalling as Couric’s ~~blowjob~~interview of OJ, but it’s in the same ballpark.

By: davey49

davey49 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:08:44 +0000

Alexeck- there aren’t any actual cars, maybe one.

By: alexeck

alexeck — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:36:31 +0000

I’m curious, what’s up with the Tesla that makes it so bad? It looks pretty cool to me.

Educate me, am I missing something?.

By: Redbarchetta

Redbarchetta — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:37:37 +0000

I thought the EPA still didn’t have a way to rate electric cars, how can he claim it is EPA rate for a range of 220 miles?

Damn misleading Fox interview, did any of you notice at the bottom it said “Tesla sold over 1000 cars” I would hardly consider deposits a real sale. Has any real customer gotten one of these yet?

By: guyincognito

guyincognito — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:06:57 +0000

Its good to see a company that respects and stays in touch with their roots. It really lets you know they have integrity and are after more than just a buck.

By: jrlombard

jrlombard — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:39:55 +0000

One of the Tesla trucks and trailers is down here in Monterey, CA–and has been for the past few days. Not sure why.

Certainly it’s not to deliver a car…

By: Robert Farago

Robert Farago — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:37:20 +0000

doug:

My bad. Text amended.

By: doug

doug — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:30:45 +0000

“Tesla CEO Elon Musk”
This is another common mistake. Elon is the Chairman of the Board, not the CEO nor a Founder.